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How to replace the plumbing here?

07-08-2010, 07:06 PM

I am currently gutting my upstairs bathroom. As you can see in the first picture, the original plumbing was put in the floor right under the wall. Might have been smart at that time, but not anymore, since I dont have any idea on how to get to that plumbing (waste pipe) to remove it. I dont want to remove the wall and tear up the floor, since - what you can see in the picture as the subfloor - is actually the hardwood floor in the next room.

I am not sure if that is the right place to ask the question, but I am trying to avoid major demo. is the only way to open up the ceiling in the room below?

Comment

Actually, the joists run parallel to the piping (or vice versa). So that is not the problem. the problem is more that right on top of the piping in the floor joist, they have a wall. If I can get to it, I can probably take out the pipe and hopefully get it out of the Y going into the cast iron stack and then replace the entire thing with new plumbing. The way it looks I dont think there is any other way than trying to get to it from the downstairs, since it probably will be a major undertaking to take out the wall, rip out the floor (which turns into the hardwood floor of the next room and then take out the plumbing and put everything back together.

The problem is that the room under that room is the kitchen and the cabinets are in the way of easy access...

I guess I'm screwed... Unless someone finds a different solution I didn't think of yet

Comment

The first picture is a wider angle of the same spot - where you can see the piping running parallel to the joists. The pipe coming up is obviously a vent pipe. I didnt open the entire floor yet, but to the left of the vent pipe there is also a floor drain that used to be a shower. I dont know yet what they did with the joists there.

The second picture shows the stack coming up and going into the attic. This is where the pipe is connected (most likely, since uncofirmed so far). Sorry, it was a bit difficult to get there so the shot is not that great. The pipe in the foreground is a vent pipe coming up from the first floor. The first 2x4 you see in the picture is actually where the wall of the bathroom is and that is where the pipe should sit. So what I am assuming is that they put a 45 in there to direct the pipe over to the stack.

The last picture shows the floor on the other side of the wall just to make it a bit clearer that the wood planks seen on the first picture are actually really the hardwood floor.

I don't have any pictures yet from anywhere else, since my wife would probably call the cops if she woke up and saw someone running around taking pictures